


I've got this Friend

by Zoejoy24



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Alternate Canon, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bullying, Disaster Malcolm, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence, Siblings, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-07
Updated: 2020-02-06
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:06:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22596001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoejoy24/pseuds/Zoejoy24
Summary: Coffee Shop AU where JT and Malcolm meet years before the show starts, while Malcolm is in college and JT is finishing his time in the service.JT comes home to New York for the first time since getting back  from Iraq.  A lot has changed in 18 months and he's desperate to make up for lost time with his baby sister, which means he'll do anything to spend time with her.  Going to fancy cafes for over-priced coffee and hanging out with her college friends are about what he's expecting from his month at home--falling for his sister's friend, Malcolm, is not.
Relationships: Malcolm Bright/JT Tarmel
Comments: 14
Kudos: 72





	I've got this Friend

**Author's Note:**

> I had no intention of writing anything like this but apparently working in a coffee shop gave me some serious coffee shop au vibes that refused to be ignored so I wrote a snippet. And then batonblue asked very nicely for more and I couldn't say no so here we are. 
> 
> Enjoy.

Staff Sergeant JT Tarmel doesn’t bother to hide his scowl as he follows his little sister into the ridiculously hipster-esque coffee shop she’d insisted he take her to. He always drinks his coffee black and isn’t sure what most of the words written in over-the-top hand lettering on the chalkboard menu even mean. There’s weird art on the walls, and plants hanging randomly from the ceiling and most of the barista’s have neon hair and gauges and JT can’t help but shake his head at the ridiculousness of it all.

But Lia is so happy to spend time with him, so happy to have him  _ back _ , that he sucks it up and gets in line. 

He’s happy to be back, too. Lucky. Plenty of guys didn’t make it back, plenty of his friends.

He’d spent his first few days back in New York cooped up in their mother’s apartment, doing his best to decompress and remember what it meant to be living in the real world once again. Then, this morning Lia had finally deemed him ready for human consumption and had insisted he go out with her. 

Still, this is not what he’d been expecting.

“Tell me again what’s so special about this place? It doesn’t seem like your usual scene,” JT mutters as they wait in line. 

“You’re right, it's not. But I like their coffee, and the people who work here are really nice. I like to support them when I can.”

JT grunts in reply, grudgingly accepting her explanation. Lia begins to chat amiably and he does his best to keep up, to stay engaged, but he can’t help but feel out of the loop. He was only overseas for 15 months but it feels like years, like a lifetime. And she’s grown up so much while he was away--graduated from high school and finished her first year of college, and he’d missed it all. But he was here now, and making up for lost time by going to shitty coffee houses with overpriced drinks.

They reach the front of the line and Lia steps up to order first. The guy behind the counter is all smiles and seems to recognize her, already knows her order. He’s also  _ tiny _ , shorter than Lia, who is admittedly taller than average, and he has the bluest eyes JT has ever seen. When JT steps up to order his plain black coffee those big blue eyes go wide in surprise and he does a quick double take between the two of them before turning back to his register. 

Lia giggles. “Malcolm, this is my brother, JT. He just came back from Iraq!”

What kind of a name is  _ Malcolm _ , JT wonders to himself. The kid directs those blue eyes and wide smile at him this time and says “That’s great!” like it's the best fucking thing he’s ever heard. 

JT scowls. “Are you gonna cash me out or what?”

_ Malcolm’s _ smile drops fractionally, and he fucking  _ blushes _ . “Oh right. Sorry, I’m… new at this.”

“Working at a coffee shop?” JT asks with a raised eyebrow as he hands over his credit card. How hard can it be?

“Working, in general,” Malcolm replies, ducking his head.

“You’re kidding?” JT deadpans.

Malcolm shakes his head, doesn’t look up. “It’s a… long story.”

“Okay man, whatever you say,” JT mutters.

Lia elbows him in the gut, frowning at him in disappointment. He sighs, feeling guilty and turns to apologize but the kid is gone, messing with one of the machines on the back counter.

JT shoves his hands in his pockets and heads to the end of the counter to wait for their drinks.

“What was that? Malcolm’s nice, you didn’t have to be a jerk!” Lia asks, her voice pitched low so no one else can hear her scolding him.

“I know, Lil, okay? I’m sorry, I don’t know what my problem is.”

Lia softens at the nickname, places a hand on his arm and gives him a sad smile. 

“I know you’ve got shit to deal with, big bro. I get it. It’s why I wanted to get you out into the world today. Just… if you could not scare away all of my friends, that’d be great.”

JT raises an eyebrow at the swear word. That’s new, too. Lia was always the good kid at home, highly intelligent with a big enough vocabulary that she never resorted to cursing to get her point across. College had clearly been expanding her horizons.

Their drinks arrive and they find a table. JT asks about her upcoming semester, effectively changing the subject. He finds his eyes wandering back to the coffee bar more than they should, though, watching the skinny kid with the infectious smile and bright blue eyes as he charms everyone who comes up to his register.

He looks up at one point when JT is watching and their eyes meet, and JT thinks he might die right then and there. He jerks his eyes away, scowling at his own stupidity and turning his full attention back to his sister and doesn’t look over again.

***

“Your brother seemed… nice,” Malcolm tells Lia the next time she comes into the coffee shop. He grimaces as he says it because the way he says  _ nice _ sounds more like he’s saying  _ asshole _ .

Lia just laughs. “He’s… a good guy. He really is. He’s just been through some shit.”

“Yeah, I can’t even imagine,” Malcolm replies. “Is he… okay?”

Lia sighs and Malcolm wonders if he’s overstepped. He does that sometimes. A lot of times. Asks too many questions, puts people off with his observations and curiosity.

“Sorry, that’s kind of personal. I don’t even know him. Sorry."

“It's fine, Mal. I know what you mean. And, he will be,” Lia says with a smile.

She leaves soon after, but Malcolm keeps thinking about JT even after she’s gone. There’s something about the man that had piqued Malcolm’s interest, and he had definitely noticed the way JT had kept looking over at him when he’d come for coffee with Lia last week. Plus, Malcolm has a thing for guys in uniform and JT was no exception. He’d creeped back through Lia’s Facebook photos and found a few from JT’s basic training graduation and homecoming celebration and dress blues were unquestionably a good look for the man.

He understood JT’s reaction, though. Lia had told him a little bit about their lives growing up. How they hadn’t had much after their dad was killed in the line of duty, how JT had joined the Army at 17 so that their widowed mother would have one less person to support. 

Malcolm sighs, wiping down the counter absently, lost in thoughts of how pathetic he must seem to someone like JT when the bells on the front door chime, drawing his attention to the door. He nearly has a heart attack when he sees that it's JT.

“Oh, you’re back,” Malcolm blurts out in surprise, followed by an observant, “Lia’s not here.”

JT strolls up to the counter, hands shoved deep in his pockets and looks at Malcolm like he’s an idiot. “I know that. I’d like a black coffee, please.”

“Sure yeah, anything else? Cupcake? Muffin?”

"Just the coffee, man.”

“Right. Sorry.”

“So, you figure it out yet?” JT asks as Malcolm rings up the coffee.

“Figure…?”

“Working. You said you were new at it.”

“Oh,” Malcolm blushes. “Right. Yeah it's… I’m getting the hang of it. I think.”

“How is this your first job? Aren’t you like, 20?” JT presses.

Malcolm sighs, rubbing his forehead. He looks around for an out, but there’s no one behind JT so he can’t brush him off.

“My family has a lot of money,” he explains quietly.

“Ah. One of those. How’d you end up here?”

“Well, let’s just say that my mother and I had some disagreements about the direction my life was taking. There may have been some ultimatums thrown down in the course of the conversation, and now here I am. Working.”

“You’re kidding. Doesn’t that shit only happen in the movies?”

“Ah, no. Turns out it doesn’t. Although my mother has always had a flare for the dramatic, so…” Malcolm trails off with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Well, good luck with that, man,” JT offers, unimpressed. He grabs his coffee and turns to leave.

“Thanks, I need it. Come back soon!” Malcolm calls after him.

Malcolm watches JT leave and then drops his head into his hands. Come back soon? Really? He groans in frustration at his own lack of eloquence. Why had JT come back in the first place? There were plenty of other places to get a decent cup of black coffee, probably for much less money. 

“Why am I like this?” he moans into his hands.

He senses someone next to him and turns his head to peak out at them.

“You know, Malcolm, for being the smartest person I know, you’re kind of an idiot,” one of his coworkers tells him before heading to the back.

He sighs.

_ Don’t I know it. _

***

JT spends his bus ride home questioning his life choices. More precisely, he asks himself over and over why he’d gone back to that coffee shop. 

He runs through a list of reasons, all the while knowing that none of them are true: The coffee is good. Your supporting small businesses. Lia will be happy to know you went out.  _ He’s pretty,  _ his most basic of brain functions supplies and JT shakes his head. Despite his own attempts at self-denial, that’s really all it came down to. He’d gone to see Malcolm again, because the kid was a mystery to him, and he wasn’t bad to look at, either. It’s been a long time since JT had been around anyone worth looking at who wouldn’t beat the shit out of him for trying. He loves the Army--would have served all 20 years if he hadn’t been med-boarded out for a shoulder injury--but he won’t miss the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell homophobic bull shit.

He has three months left till he’s out for good. One month of leave left before he has to go back to Ft. Campbell and finish up all the medical appointments and paperwork necessary to separate and start his life all over again. He’s already stopped by his dad’s old precinct to talk to them about getting a job there, once he gets out and completes his training at the police academy. It feels good to have a plan, to know he’ll land on his feet when he gets out, even if it’s sooner than he’d been anticipating.

He gets back to his mother’s small apartment only to find Lia getting ready to leave. She eyes the coffee cup in his hand and gives him a little smirk but doesn’t say anything. 

“Where are you headed?” he asks as he makes his way to the tiny kitchen.

The apartment is perfectly sized for one person and their mother lives there comfortably. It is not sized for hosting both of her grown children when they happen to be visiting at the same time, but they're making it work. It reminds JT of when they were growing up, although those apartments weren’t nearly as nice as their mother’s current home.

“I’m going out with some friends. You want to come?” Lia replies as she flits between the living room, where most of her things are being kept, and the bathroom, where the only mirror in the apartment is hanging.

“I think I’m good, Lil. I don’t need to be feeling like a grandpa all night hanging out with you kids.”

Lia snorts. They're only 4 years apart but JT has always acted older. He'd been forced to grow up quickly when their father had died, and it's been a running joke between them for several years now.

“You’re not that old! Some of them are practically your age. You might have fun,” she shouts from the bathroom. Then, she sticks her head out and gives him a look, trying and failing to be nonchalant as she adds “Malcolm will be there, you know him.”

“Malcolm? From the coffee shop?”

“Do you know any other Malcolms?” Lia jokes.

“You hang out with him?”

“I told you he’s my friend,” Lia replies, stepping back out into the living room, bristling slightly and JT’s tone. “We’re in the same degree program at school, although he’s a semester ahead of me.”

“Malcolm from the coffee shop is going to Harvard?” JT asks skeptically.

Lia puts her hands on her hips and attempts to pin JT to his chair with the force of her glare. “What is your problem with him, JT? Malcolm is a great guy and he’s the smartest person I know. If he hadn’t tutored me all semester I would have lost my scholarship."

JT snorts and starts to protest but Lia holds up a finger to silence him.

“I’m serious. He’s a good friend, so what gives?”

JT shifts uncomfortably in his seat. “Lil, it’s great that he’s your friend, and that he helped you out at school. But he comes from a different world than us, and when he’s done with Harvard, I’m worried that he’ll be done with you. I just don’t want to see you get hurt.”

“You can’t be serious, JT. You’ve met Malcolm twice and you think you know all about him, because his family has money? He’s not like that, okay? He’s… he’s gone through some shit too. He wants to join the FBI for god’s sake. If you bothered to pull your head out of your ass for a second, you might actually like him!” Lia exclaims. 

She stalks past him, grabs her purse and walks out the door, slamming it behind her on her way out.

_ Shit _ , JT mutters to himself. So much for family bonding time. He hurries to the door, pulling it open and leaning out over the balcony.

“Lia, wait up!” he calls after his baby sister before locking the door behind him and rushing down after her.


End file.
